I bought a new treadmill yesterday. This one to be exact. I need some Dopers to give me a good work out regimine to help me lose some weight with this thing. I have lost 20 lbs since January 1st through dieting alone, and as can be expected my loses have begun to level off. Now is the time to start exercising. My goal is to lose 60 - 80 more pounds by my 10 year high school reunion in June 2006. This would put me at the weight I was when I weighed in for my last wrestling match which was also probably the best shape I have ever been in. I will be getting a weight bench and a few weights in the following weeks from a cow-orker and will be incorporating that into my workouts. As far as my current conditioning, yesterday I jogged 2 miles on my new treadmill and today I feel fine and I plan to jog another 2 miles today. Let me hear what you think.
I pride myself on being about four years behind on fitness trends, so let me tell you about my most recent discovery: interval training.
The idea is that, well, say, you can’t run 2 miles flat out, right? But what you do run fast for 2 minutes (e.g. 7 mph, or whatever’s a challenging speed to you), then slow down to your recovery pace (say a little slower than you’re jogging now) for 2 minutes, then return to the interval pace, etc. This is well-suited to the treadmill because you are able to precisely control your speed.
The benefits are: You end up running at a higher average speed than if you simply ran at the fastest uniform pace you can maintain for 2 miles. The time you spend running at the fastest pace is improving your conditioning more than running at an easier-to-maintain pace. Most importantly, according to my trainer, when you do something for a long time, your body learns how to do it more efficiently. This holds for doing the same workout for the day, and even-to-minute duing your workout. Every time you change pace, your body is thrown off, and spends a little while figuring out how to adapt to your new pace. When your body finds the most efficient movement, and you stop using so many calories per minute . . . and if you’re doing interval training, that’s when you change your pace again, and your body has to work harder again.
The nice thing about intervals is that there are lots of different ways to “ramp up” your workout. You can do a higher max speed. You can increase the high-speed interval time. What I’m doing now is a “pyramid,” where each high speed interval gets faster and faster, and I only do 30 second intervals at the fastest speed, and then back down, ending with a sustained run of 4 minutes at a medium speed.
And of course, warm up for 5 minutes, stretch all major muscle groups, do your workout, cool down 5 minutes, and stretch again to prevent injuries and reduce soreness. (I’m told that stretching before might not be as important, but I do it anyway, 'cause it’d suck to get benched by a pulled muscle.)
Meh, I think you’re doing fine. Keep up the cardiovascular, eat well, add in weight training, you’ll be fine.
This biggest problem you’re going to have is that in a couple of months you’re going start losing your resolve - especially if you lose another 20lbs or so. It’s important to stay in the habit of exercising. If you do that, you’ll be just fine doing what you’re doing.